Bill Reed has been working with house churches for the last couple of years in a neighboring community in the Central Coast of California. He recently sent out the following reminders to some of those he gathers with which I thought was some good food to pass along to all of us:
- Personal time with Jesus away from the gatherings/meetings. Time by yourself, with your spouse, or with your family reading God’s word and praying is the backbone of what we are doing. You need to take time during the week to contemplate and meditate on the things of God. (His Word, His Creation, His Character) Jenny and I encourage you to do this not just by yourself but with your spouse and/or your family. If you have no family or spouse, grab a close friend. Our home calls this time “JAM Time”. (Jesus And Me Time) Our strength lies in our daily “personal relationship” with our Creator, Jesus Christ. He is the backbone of our gatherings. He is the grand architect for our meetings. He knows where to place each living stone. (First Peter Chapter 2) We must stay in constant fellowship with Jesus Christ in order for our gatherings to come to have life and meaning.
- Bring something to share to each gathering/meeting. It could be as simple as a word of encouragement, a song, a verse from the Bible, or a testimony of how God is working in and through your life. Meetings are only awkward when we have not come prepared to build each other up and encourage one another. When we come prepared to share what God is teaching us, we come full of life, ready to give it away. There are times when we have nothing to share because we are just exhausted or have been distracted throughout our week. Come prepared to share just that… “I am exhausted and I have nothing to share, would you please pray for me to get through this time.” You see, there is always something to share!
- During our times of open worship (Times that we sing, pray, read the word), quiet your heart before God and ask Him to speak to your heart. Listen for the “still small voice”(Ps. 46:10;83:10;95:6-11). He, the Holy Spirit, may remind you of God’s faithfulness to you during the week, and if so then share it. He may remind you of un-confessed sin, if so then share it with Him and if you feel led with the group. He may ask you to share something with the group from the Bible, make sure that you do so. Jesus is the head of the church and He will guide our meetings, if we come prepared to share and to listen.
- Prayer…Prayer…and more Prayer! Pray without ceasing. We must learn to bring everything to God in prayer. He does hear us!
- Gather outside the gatherings as “brothers and sisters” in the household of Jesus Christ. Get together to watch movies, have game nights, etc. The Body of Christ (those who are believers) need to learn the art of “fun” and “joy”. For some reason, it was lost over the last century.
- Engage our community… Get involved in our communities and make a difference. Build bridges of relationship with those outside of the Christian community. Let the light of Jesus shine brightly in the world in which we live. Pray and ask the Lord to lead you into some sort of community involvement that puts you in touch with people who do not know Jesus Christ. This will give you an opportunity to “shine brightly” as a follower of Jesus Christ.
- Lastly, remember that how we act throughout our day is worship. We are in the presence of God 24/7 whether we want to admit it or not. Being a Christian is something that you are… not something that you do once or twice a week.
Comments
6 responses to “Great Reminders”
I can’t help but thinking that this is a list developed by a pastor (or former pastor) reminding people to dot their I’s and cross their T’s – a throwback from a different church experience.
There must be more to the Christian life than 10 steps and neat sounding acronyms. I’m not knocking the effort to put these things out there, but I’m longing for the day when it won’t be about what we can remember to do or prepare ourselves to do – where we don’t need to be made to realize what is important.
Instead, I’m looking to a time when we are just able to cut through the business of the day and KNOW what the Father is leading us to do. I sure wish that’s where I was. But, I’m starting to get weary of sunshine lists like these because without the vital relationship between each other and the Father, they are simply a more palatable law to follow.
If we have those relationships, lists like these are totally unneeded because then we are being organic like family. My kids would be weary very quickly if I gave them a list of helpful hints like this for our family. I think the lifecycle of most house churches also reflect their inability to bring life.
So, here I am – it seems I can’t help but buck the system. Isn’t anyone else ready for a dose of reality? I think we need to go much deeper than this. Many of us have been living on the surface for too long and I’m one of them.
Chris,
When I first read Bill Reed’s comments, as posted by Roger, my thoughts were that these items are pretty simple and pretty obvious. But, your response to them is what frightens me most about considering a house church in my future. Your rush to judgment is something I have seen too often in my recent visits to house churches. It’s almost like we are so fixed on hearing from God, that we refuse to believe He might use anyone else to speak to us.
If Bill has been working with these churches, then there’s a good chance that the folks know him well and know where he’s coming from when he offers this counsel. You and I don’t know Bill, at least I don’t anyway, and it would be easy to see his counsel as the same old controlling words we may have seen in past experiences. But, it’s that very defensive posture in our hearts that causes us to continually see the glass as half-empty in our spiritual experiences – something much more dangerous than Bill’s words, even if they were offered in a self-serving, controlling fashion, which I didn’t perceive at all.
I don’t mean to challenge you for the same of challenging you, but I more intend to offer myself up for honest dialogue in this matter – since it’s one of the things that causes me to struggle with my limited exposure to house, or simple, church.
I came out of the shepherding movement, where the ultimate control in people’s lives was practiced. After surviving that 10 year experience, it is so easy for me to do what you did and label anything as controlling that even remotely resembles it. But, I’m trying to look objectively at the biases that have been built into my life based on my past experiences. What am I running toward, versus what am I running from?
The role of teachers is certainly scriptural. Was Bill exercising his responsibility as a teacher, to these churches, to offer counsel where he saw a need? Did his counsel witness enough to Roger to lead him to post the comments? You said you think we need to go much deeper than this. Can you provide examples of what you meant and examples of how you would suggest people get to that deeper level?
I don’t intend that Bill Reed is trying to control. I also didn’t perceive that from what he wrote. The shepherding movement is something I have a little experience with myself and I see no similarity between what he wrote and that movement. That is not the basis of my angst. I am not angry with Bill, or Roger or any person, nor do I think they are a threat – nor would I want to make someone miss what God is doing in the house churches.
What troubles me has as much to do about me as it does anyone else. I’m really talking about all of us as the church. I’m sure I can’t give adequate description, but I’ll try. It’s the formulas, procedures and prescriptions that are wearying me. It’s not that I take issue with the content of Bills reminders. It’s that we so easily look at them and think: “Oh, yeah, I should be doing that”. “If I follow these reminders, I will stay on track”. I’m talking about the subtlety of religion. Our thinking is often: “If we want successful meetings, let’s make sure we’re covering all the bases and do things the right way”. I have read many, and even written a few tips on the best way to live as the church.
I want communities, fellowships, and house churches to grow. I think where we are as a church has been affected in the positive by house church, cell church, emerging church, etc. But I think we take something with us from our old experiences. (I can’t help but thinking that this is a list developed by a pastor (or former pastor) reminding people to dot their I’s and cross their T’s – a throwback from a different church experience.) What I’ve seen here in the U.S. is our need to have a plan or a model to follow. We need a formula for prayer, evangelism, networks, meetings, etc. This is has been true in house church just as it has been true in traditional church, but to a lesser and more subtle degree. I think we are emotionally reliant on “best practices” instead of spiritually reliant on the voice of the Father. Again, I have to stress the “we” part of this. I’m not pointing at individuals. Where we have been effective and have been able to sustain our effectiveness has been where we have been able to build strong relationships. I’m not implying the Bill Reed and those he knows, haven’t been building relationships. My contention is that it is those relationships that have made the difference, not the helpful hints. Relationship with the Father and with our brothers and sisters can’t be encapsulated or taught in a reminder list.
My main point is not to dump house church, or anything that the Lord has put together. But there is a reason why people get weary of these lists. We don’t always admit, even to ourselves, that we do many things by rote instead of inspiration. Maybe I am straining out a gnat, or focusing on minutiae or will be in a different mood when I look back at what I written and regret it. But in my heart, I think this issue is at the core of where we have historically missed it. Our life is not about meetings or what we do in them. Our lives are to be about living in the upside-down. I’m sure I haven’t given substantial explanation. I’m even having a hard time understanding all the things I’m feeling about this issue myself. Perhaps it will create some interesting dialogue, though.
Maybe I’m just wierd… but I love these kinds of comments. It’s exactly this kind of dialogue (the comments on this post) that I believe is most helpful and insight-producing to all of us as we wrestle with non-religious Christianity.
Keep at it…
Chris,
Thanks so much for your time and effort it responding. Your clarification was very helpful! The general theme that I took away from what you wrote was centered in your comment:
“It’s the formulas, procedures and prescriptions that are wearying me.”
I fully understand what you are saying, and I fully agree. When we finally move away from the man-made traditions that have tied us down, we suddenly discover we are frequently doing nothing more than creating a new set of man-made traditions. Pretty ironic huh?
In my own life, the problem has centered around my efforts to fill the God-sized void in my life with “church.” When I do this, I come to church unprepared expecting to receive, from those around me, that which I should have been receiving all week long directly from God. And, if everyone else around me does the same thing, well, first of all we’re all in trouble and, secondly, it becomes easy to see why the “one man show” has evolved in today’s institutional church.
So, I think there is a valuable exhortation in Bill’s list because I think it clearly describes the difference between those who will show up for church prepared and those who will ultimately come unprepared – and we all know house church is no guarantee for avoiding the latter. Sure, each of us will be unprepared from time to time, but if it’s a consistent thing, we should be asking ourselves some tough questions.
Thanks again Chris!
Thoughts?
Chris
I am not sure why you are reacting to what Bill is saying. If you go to different parts of the Bible, the apostle Paul most definitely made list. Give Thanks in all things. Let your request be made known to God. Pray in all things. Serve one another…….. You may say this is different but he also made list when things weren’t going well. And when you assemble, one has a … another has a …… When you speak in tongues let it be by two or three and let there be an interpretation…. and wait your turn, Otherwisw be quiet. Do not forsake the assembling of one another…. So would Bill be wrong if he made a similar list reminding us to give thanks…. to pray….. to serve one another…. Or when things are not going well in our meetings to remind us…. so and so. If there is a problem with this I would have to say that lists tend to try and make photo copy churches. This is exactly how churches should operate. But I have no problem with Bill reminding us that we ought to spend time with Jesus because so often, as humans, we tend to get off the path. For example, house churches tend to meeting focused…. so does it not do us well to remaind us to reach out beyond our selves????? When I see a list I do not view them as laws or commands but as reminders… I still think his list is too meeting focused……